One of the first articles I read about photographing the eclipse said...don't. It suggested that if you have never seen an eclipse, leave your camera at home and just take in the event and enjoy it. Of course, I couldn't resist and I'm glad I didn't.

I ended up with over a thousand captures of the event. Including the great people I met along the way.

I took three months to prepare for this shoot. The first decision had to be finding a location. The best source of information for any celestial event is NASA. I chose a spot on the Cherohala Skyway in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I was walking distance from the Tennessee/North Carolina border. Of course several hundred other people found the same spot. Meeting them was some of the best parts of the trip. Some people went up the night before, hiked into the woods and camped overnight. Others went up the morning of the event and found a spot ahead of time and others just pulled off the road wherever they were. Cars and people lined the Skyway for miles.

No pictures can capture the excitement and camaraderie that was experienced by everyone.